Museums of the City in Small Centres. The Case of Montepulciano

Ludovica GaLeazzo

MuseuMs of the City in sMall Centresthe Case of MontepulCiano

sur cet extrême bord de la toscane […] une ville se détache sur l’espèce de cap auquel aboutit l’ondulation immense des coteaux. C’est Montepulciano, véritable bijou de guerre d’une joliesse féroce, serti dans ses rem-parts d’un dessin net comme un relief de géométrie et que contourne la route.

(p. Bourget, Sensations d’Italie, 1891, p. 80)

Montepulciano is a small town perched on the sienese hills in the Val di Chiana (fig. 1). though known to many for its wine, the city is actually a rare example of the artistic-architectural crystallisation of various ‘styles’. some of its buildings – just think of the church of san Biagio, of antonio da sangallo the elder’s palazzo Del Monte Contucci, or of the town hall and palazzo ricci, attributed respectively to Michelozzo and Baldassarre peruzzi – are real monumenta in the history of architecture and have earned the town the name ‘pearl of the cinquecento’ (figg. 2-3). even today, Montepulciano is still a vi-tal centre. it is a driving force behind widely resonating social and cultural ini-tiatives, ranging from the international art Workshop’s experimental theatre, to the european academy of Music’s creative and artistic musical proposals, to the consortia founded to support wine production and promote the area’s natural and historical attractions.

it is this dichotomy that has provided the focus for a new approach to a ‘minor’ reality aimed at analysing not only single works of architecture, which historians have already studied extensively, but the town in its entirety, in every one of its active components and every factor of continual change1.

1 this study began with the research for my thesis, which was discussed in March 2010. L. GaLeazzo, Memoria e rappresentazione della città: il caso di Montepulciano, dissertation

106 luDoViCa Galeazzo MuseuMs of the City in sMall Centres: the Case of MontepulCiano 107

the outcome of the research suggests structuring a museum of the city as a place for gathering historical evidence, as a hub for keeping constantly abreast of contemporary events and as a valuable tool for learning more about and for coming to fully understand Montepulciano.

Museums of the city in large and small urban centresthe almost compulsive proliferation of the debate on the subject of the

museum has been accompanied by a slow but steady shift from what could be called the ‘museum in the city’, meant for collecting objects, documents and other evidence inside well-defined structures, to the more energetic and articulated ‘museum of the city’. Both of these institutions seem to be over-whelmingly popular: attendance is constantly rising and the public as well as the press and museum experts have all expressed enormous interest2. the

supervisor, D. Calabi, università iuav di Venezia, faculty of architecture, 2009-2010.2 the attention that has been paid to this phenomenon on both a national and interna-

fig. 1 - panorama of Montepulciano, seen from the Val di Chiana (photo by the author).


fig. 2 - piazza Grande, Montepulciano (photo by the author).

fig. 3 - antonio da sangallo the elder, church of the Madonna di san Biagio, 1518–64, Montepulciano (photo by the author).


quantitative and qualitative development has even challenged the very no-tion of the museum itself, which has actually become the centre of a systemic process in which research, conservation and communications are perfectly integrated3.

the great cultural ferment underway has led to a questioning as to wheth-er and to what extent or, better yet, in what way small town centres should create museums of the city, and if this is actually a good idea for Montep-ulciano. this study begins by analysing the particular characteristics of this institution – which has already been amply investigated in the bibliography cited – and goes on to make a direct comparison between different large - and small-scale realities.

in its dual capacity of conserving and protecting artistic heritage and for fully and faithfully recounting the civic history of an urban centre, the mu-seum of the city is also an indispensable tool for small towns. it is here, in these places where the territory’s limited size and decentralised position have often had a positive impact on preserving a particular historical-geographical connotation, that it is possible to delineate the evolution of an urban centre in an easier and more consistent way.

it is, however, in the connective functions of dissemination, education and social promotion that the small town museum tends to see its value as a guardian of historical memory and as a representative of the actual place-iden-tity. it is precisely in these medium-sized italian cities that it has been possible to synergistically hold together characteristics that are not immediately com-patible, such as wealth and hospitality, the human scale and the integration of

tional scale is readily understood by citing just a few of the studies that have been done: N. Johnson (ed.), Reflecting Cities, proceedings of first international symposium on City Mu-seums (london, 19-21 april 1993), london, Museum of london, 1993; c.S. BertuGLia-c. MoNtaLdo, Il museo della città, foreword by G. Dioguardi, Milano, f. angeli, 2003; i. JoNeS-MacdoNaLd roBert, City Museums and City Development, lanham, altamira press, 2008; I musei della città, acts of the aisu Conference (roma, 2-3 December 2005), D. Calabi, p. Marini, C. travaglini (eds.), “Città e storia”, iii, 2008, 1-2, and d. caLaBi, Memory, nar-ratives and displays of the urban past. City Museums: a report on the on-going debate and ini-tiatives, “planning perspectives”, 3, 2009, pp. 385-390 and P.c. MaraNi-r. PavoNi, Musei: trasformazioni di un’istituzione dall’età moderna al contemporaneo, Venezia, Marsilio, 2012.

3 F. doNato-a. M. viSSer travaGLi, Il museo oltre la crisi. Dialogo fra museologia e manage-ment, Milano, electa, 2010, p. 29.


supralocal networks, and it is here that one feels a strong need to celebrate and withstand the challenge of globalisation 4. priority is placed on relationships with citizens who live their city day-to-day and, consequently, on the role of temporary exhibitions, courses and workshops aimed at drawing users into the museum on an on-going basis, transforming sporadic visits into habit and thereby strengthening the sense of belonging to the city.

in smaller places where the relationship with the territory is more direct and not mediated by superstructures, the museum seems to play a marginal role as an observatory of change and as a place where citizens and the public administration meet to debate new urban strategies5.

on the contrary, the museum becomes an indispensable tool for the city’s actual development. for some years now studies have highlighted the precari-ous reality of the italian museum sector, which is made up of a large number of institutions, almost all of which are modest in size and way behind euro-pean standards6. But in small towns new museums are actually able to survive just by moving toward anglo-saxon museum principles and by re-thinking the vital contribution they can make to local development policies based on cultural tourism. Despite the difficult economic situation, these structures continue to be places where the most tenacious attempts at innovation are being made and where new practices are being put into use in all areas of management7. symbolic of the prevailing politics of spectacle,8 they have to bestow prestige on and guarantee visibility to centres that are not inherently well known.

4 G. aMeNdoLa, Tra Dedalo e Icaro. La nuova domanda di città, roma-Bari, Glf editori laterza, 2010, p. 13.

5 see F. LoMBardi, Il museo della città, “Dossier di urbanistica e cultura del territorio”, 1990, 12, rimini, Maggioli, pp. 13-15.

6 the local character of many museum collections, which is often the result of the state having taken ownership of the assets of religious organisations that have been run by the na-tional government since italy’s unification, has already revealed the fragmentary and limited nature of these cultural forms, which are not able to carry out research-based activities or to promote the context of which they are part.

7 see the iCoM italia document entitled Una difficile situazione, edited by Daniele Jallà and presented at their board meeting in Mantua in 2008.

8 see d. PoNziNi, Starchitecture: scene, attori e spettacoli nelle citta contemporanee, torino, allemandi, 2011.


as contact points and places where history, research, training and the gen-eral public come together, they have taken on the role of catalyst and become a sounding board for a variety of experiences9. unlike large cities where the museum often has to report to a specific research institution with various disciplinary functions, small centres often have to deal with a number of wa-tered-down collections in town buildings or religious sites or, in some cases, with a collection of a lot of different materials inside a civic museum.

in this kind of context, the museum of the city takes on an even more important role inasmuch as it is able to create a synthesis between different contents, through an interdisciplinary interpretation that distinguishes itself from traditional and nineteenth-century exhibitions by the innovative way in which the materials are shown and communicated.

Montepulciano: Why a museum?Montepulciano is part of siena, a region that is extremely rich in cul-

tural, urban and landscape resources. in 2003, with the goals of providing incentives for this immense and increasingly popular heritage and of creating a more qualified and far-reaching project, the provincial administration of siena set up a museum network10 known as the fondazione Musei senesi11. the network brings forty-three museums together with the tasks of promot-ing awareness of the region and of further developing aspects of its economy, identity and educational system. all the structures are quite different both terms of in size and in focus, and offer a variety of different materials regard-ing archaeological, art-historical, anthropological and scientific-naturalistic heritage.

9 a. NeGri-M. NeGri-r. PavoNi, Il museo cittadino: formazione, gestione, strutture, roma, la nuova italia scientifica, 1983, pp. 7-9.

10 see Sistemi museali in Italia: analisi di alcune esperienze: le prime tappe di un lun-go cammino: dossier, Centro studi tCi, Milano, 2000 and S. BaGdadLi, Le reti di musei: l’organizzazione a rete per i beni culturali in Italia e all’estero, foreword by e. a. albertoni, introduction by p. petraroia, afterword by n. Cannada Bartoli, Milano, eGea, 2001.

11 the organisation includes the institutional participation of the municipalities of siena and its province, of the archdiocese of siena and that of Montepulciano, of the università degli studi di siena, of the fondazione Monte dei paschi di siena and the Banca Monte dei paschi di siena spa. for a complete list of the museums, see http://www.museisenesi.org/home.aspx.


Within this system, Montepulciano, alongside pienza and obviously siena, represents one of the most attractive centres and acts as a sounding board for the smaller municipalities. the traces left by the different phases of the city’s history are extremely valuable, meaningful and well-preserved, and have been able to meld together in such a way that every period has accepted and incor-porated what came before and already seems to provide a space for what is to come, even if what overwhelmingly emerges in this anthology of extremely interesting artefacts are those of the renaissance.

this alone, however, is not enough to describe the identity of this city, which has been able to continually reinterpret itself by creating educational institutions, information centres and creative workshops, aimed at keeping the attention given to it alive and tangible. among the most active of these efforts are the Museo Civico e pinacoteca Crociani, the Biblioteca-archivio storico Comunale “piero Calamandrei”, the international art Workshop and the european academy of Music.

one cannot help but wonder therefore whether the existing structures are not already sufficient in guaranteeing the safeguarding and promotion of memory, and, consequently, whether the idea of creating a museum of the city is not perhaps redundant. the lack of a structure for addressing the city’s evolution in a rational and synthetic way should however be noted. though the Civic Museum collects and conserves the major archaeological and art works that have been produced or have been brought to the city over the centuries, creating a unified picture of the city’s urban history or inducing the public to visit the city is not among its goals. the museum restricts itself to organising the objects in its collection according to chronological criteria or to opportunities for exhibitions. the library is active in promoting initiatives and, by its very nature, is still a magnet for people who are already predis-posed to research, but it does not, unfortunately, have the ability to immedi-ately engage the general public. similarly, the other institutions also promote their specific fields. they attract quite a few spectators extemporaneously but have a hard time getting them to interact for longer periods of time.

there is a need, therefore, for a means of communication at the service of the region but, at the same time, there is a desire to leave the present institu-tions as they are, without overburdening and interacting with them, coupled with a desire to significantly expand the materials and the works on display


according to up-to-date criteria and methodologies. this is what has led to the idea of creating a new museum for the city.

the project envisions the creation of a space that simply acts as an ante-chamber for an itinerary that opens up the city itself. the goal is go beyond the physical confines of the structure by enticing visitors to explore the city streets, thus prompting direct contact with city12. By following this choice, the objects and historical artefacts are replaced by itineraries based on ideas and relationships; the installations can thus avoid, in part, chronological lin-earity in order to embrace a clearer and more timely way of narrating concepts and topics of particular importance13. When doing so it would be a good idea for the museum to make use of innovative means of communication and share information that can seduce the visitor, on the one hand, and, on the other, be more incisive in coherently integrating with the existing works.

The exhibition projectWhat must be considered here is the possibility of locating and setting up

a potential museum. it is a pure exercise that starts from an ideal situation, free from the constraints of clients, business plans or structural or regulatory issues, and, as such, aims at presenting some reflections for an analytical ap-proach to the history of the city.

one possible site is the fortress complex, a place that – with its evocative power and its size and location – seems appropriate for this structure (fig. 4).

the organisation of the museum itinerary could bring the canonical span-ning of time together with a purely thematic approach, highlighting, for the purposes of story-telling, the socio-economic and political discontinuities that characterise the city’s history, which can be summarised in three areas that then have to be transformed into the three sections of the exhibition: the city’s early growth, the exceptional architectural development that followed and, finally, an openness to new social and economic scenarios.

in this way the exhibition sequence could follow the evolution of the ur-ban core from a small etruscan settlement to a lombard castellum and then consider the period of the medieval city-republics (fig. 5), characterised by

12 c.S. BertuGLia-c. MoNtaLdo, Il museo della città, cit., pp. 133-144.13 d. MciNtyre, Rappresentare le storie urbane: i musei della città e l’allestimento espositivo,

in a. aymonino, i. tolic (eds.), La vita delle mostre, Milano, Mondadori, 2007, pp. 135-144.


the flooding of the Val di Chiana (eleventh century). this event profoundly altered the region’s form and structure, gave a strong impetus to trade and greatly expanded the economy, factors that, in turn, gave rise to continual conflicts between florence and siena for hegemony over the city (fig. 6). the new well-being laid the grounds for the further development of aa culturally ambitious elite that commissioned important building projects aimed at con-veying its social prestige on an artistic and architectural plane (fig. 7). the most recent phase that would have to be considered is the progressive margin-alisation of the city, which, between the sixteenth and the eighteenth century, lost its political and economic dynamism, due primarily to the reclamation of the valley and the consequent shift of activities towards the areas of the plains, and a phase in which moments of ephemeral prosperity alternated with situa-tions of stasis. there was a lack of impetus and motivation for augmenting the city’s architectural heritage, which remained ‘crystallised’ in its sixteenth cen-tury and Baroque appearance. this preservation contributed to developing a new, vital interest in the politian centre that, from the nineteenth century on, became and still remains a destination for italian and international tourism.

the idea behind the exhibition is to keep the visitor’s attention and inter-est alive by synthesising, in the way in which the works are mounted, the three main nuclei inside which the individual historical, artistic, social and economic aspects are to be merged. the sections may be identified as follows:

1. the development of the city1.1 the etruscan settlement and the roman castrum 1.2 the lombard domination

2. unexpected prosperity2.1 the flooding of the Val di Chiana2.2 the expansion of the city 2.3 Montepulciano as a casus belli2.4 economic development2.5 architecture2.6 politian art2.7 historical biographies

3. Crystallisation and new horizons3.1 the Grand Duchy and the reclamation of the Val di Chiana3.2 the nineteenth century


fig. 4 - fortress complex, Montepulciano, seen from the southern wing of the interior court-yard (photo by the author).

fig. 5 - taddeo di Bartolo, [untitled] sant’antilia offers Montepulciano to the Virgin Mary, 1401, tempera on wood panel, Montepulciano, Cathedral, high altar (Diateca university iuaV of Venice).


3.3 twentieth-century tourism3.4 politian traditions3.5 Cinema

the diversity of the subjects and materials proposed is also corroborated by different modes of storytelling that, in their specificity, provide various levels of in-depth examination and knowledge (fig. 8).

in the first section, which is devoted to the city’s birth and development, the lack of reliable documentation and the scarcity of historical artefacts make it necessary to focus on educational aspects. the use of explanatory panels, together with drawings, graphics and a multimedia video is envisioned along-side excavated materials and preserved antiquities.

the second section on the unexpected prosperity that began to spread through the entire city in the early Middle ages aims at communicating in more diversified ways. animated and interactive models will recount the story of the hydrogeological and urban transformation and the consequent devel-opment of new trade routes, while a morphing programme will make it pos-sible to compare historical maps with views of the city as it is today. the use of maps, 3D models and multimedia stations will make it easy to identify the city’s expansion as well as the still-existing buildings and those that are no long visible, making use of a historical iconography tool that might also be able to define their possible earlier form and structure.

another room is to be devoted to historical events that, because of their complexity and the speed with which the changes occurred, are quite difficult to represent. a projection of a synthetic chronology from the eleventh to the sixteenth century will be shown on the wall screen and, next to this, some touch screen monitors will make it possible for users to interrupt the projection and do a more in-depth search using links to specific information.

to understand the truly dynamic character of medieval Montepulciano, visitors will also have to let themselves be transported by the town’s sounds, smells and tastes. to this end, there is a sensorial environment that actually reproduces the ‘rowdiness’ of the era and the smells associated with the pro-cesses of politian day-to-day work life, for example woad and saffron.

the museum itinerary then delineates the most significant aspect of the city, or rather its exceptional artistic and architectural heritage, making it possible to grasp its development as a consequence of historical and political events. since


fig. 6 - leonardo da Vinci, [untitled] perspective map of Val di Chiana, 1503, charcoal, pen and watercolour drawing on paper, london, Windsor Castle, royal library, the print room, n. 12278 (Diateca university iuaV of Venice).

fig. 7 - Bartolomeo Barbiani, [untitled] View of city Montepulciano from the south-east, 17th century, oil on canvas, Montepulciano, palazzo Cervini (Diateca university iuaV of Venice).


fig. 8 - fortress complex, Montepulciano, project for the interior installation.

architecture is ‘the only art that to be visited must be physically traversed’14, the museum will have to propose synthetic explanations and pieces of input and re-flections that entice the visitor to check out what they have learned in the reality of the city’s streets. Moving around the politian centre can actually be likened to a journey through the history of architecture, a journey that is otherwise dif-ficult to reproduce. it is not unreasonable, therefore, to think about proposing broader, more articulated reflections on the history of architecture using the works that exist inside the city as models and means of comparison; these works reveal, without solutions of continuity, the path that art and architecture fol-lowed from the Gothic to the renaissance to the Baroque.

What the museum proposes, therefore, is an itinerary of observation and historical research which meanders through its districts on one of two alterna-

14 F. choay, L’allegoria del patrimonio, edited by e. d’alfonso, i. Valente, roma, officina, 1995, p. 156.


tive routes. the shorter one is limited to the core of piazza Grande, the other more complex and demanding route complements it by integrating the ancient roads, such as the via della Mercanzia, via di Gracciano and via dell’opio. Visi-tors are not left on their own on this ‘petit’ and ‘grand tour’ but make their tour accompanied by an audio guide and a technical information sheet.

the resultant spaces are designed to focus attention on other experiences that gave rise to the city’s importance in the literary, visual and plastic arts, reserving a space for the figures that became their protagonists, as authors and as patrons. one unusual and quite special space has been mounted in the form of small ‘sa-lons’ where the visitor can stop in a sort of meditative space and listen to the voices of the protagonists recounting the city’s history.

in the last part of the exhibition itinerary, the eighteenth–nineteenth cen-tury image of the crystallised and already declining city is set on plates that illustrate the major urban transformations, including passages taken from the diaries of travellers on their Grand tour and the pictures that accompany them, photos from archives and reclamation projects.

the itinerary comes to a close with a section devoted to contemporary times that brings out the city’s role as a magnet, aimed at keeping alive and enriching its traditions. as a documentation centre on the city’s life, the museum plans to present its two most important manifestations – the Bravio delle Botti and the Bruscello – using materials provided by citizens and actively involving them in interactions with the museum organisation.

a presentation of Montepulciano today would not be complete without something about its food and wine, because this too, in the end, is part of its culture and is essential for knowledge of the city, both in italy and abroad. as such, legends, stories, information and objects tied to local production are as-sembled and the various companies operating in this sector are also presented.

a final way of representing the city could be that of showing it as it has been me-diated through the eyes of the various directors who have shot their films there. film is a medium that represents itself, thus the exhibition space would have to include a screening room, accompanied by an exhibition of costumes, set photos and records of anecdotes from when the films were shot. an outside contribution, that of film, might make it possible to grasp what is always under the eyes of the city’s inhabit-ants in a completely new way and offer anew the amazement and wonder that daily habits tend to suppress.


alongside the permanent exhibition, ample space would thus also be given to the temporary and research-based activities that are, as we have seen, of no less importance in the life of a museum. temporary exhibitions, conferences and debates are all to be planned, as well as workshops aimed at both adult audiences, through research-oriented services (archives for photographs, his-torical drawings, maps and posters), and at younger visitors and even children through playschool activities. in the varied logic that governs these initia-tives, the common goal remains the widespread and shared dissemination of knowledge as a process that engages visitors without committing them to the interior of a single structure and in which the subtle fascination of learning is revealed in all its extraordinary potential15.

15 G. dioGuardi, Il museo dell’esistenza. Divagazioni intorno ai musei, alle città, alle im-prese, palermo, sellerio, 1993, p. 16.

this essay was translated by Marlene Klein.revised by elizabeth Bevan.

Museums of the City in Small Centres. The Case of Montepulciano

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